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I'm new to the South, but I just heard this one today: สูบบุหรี่ (suup buri - to smoke) is duup buri or dtuup buri in the southern dialect. I told the mae ban I wanted a non-smoking room ไม่สูบบุหรี่. She didn't understand at first but finally got it and radioed the office staff to inform them I wanted 'mai duup buri.'

This is my first time to the far south, I had no idea the southern thai was so different from central thai. Good on you for trying to learn the local dialect.

My wife said this can be heard all over Thailand, though I don't readily recall hearing it much myself.

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Another one I realized today, again inspired by my in-laws, is that you have to use the word ตาย (dtaay!, which sounds a lot like the English equivalent in meaning: die) multiple times in succession as an expletive if a current situation is not going in the most desirable fashion. I am not sure if this is just a southern thing, but I don't remember hearing it that much, if at all, when I lived in Bangkok.

Given the similarity, I have often wondered if this is actually a loan word from English.

However, yelling 'Die!, Die, Die' in English would conjure up images of witch-hunts and KKK lynchings, whereas here any mildly frustrating situation seems enough to set it off...

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it’s my opinion ‘die’ and ‘tdai (thai: to die)’ are rooted in very old shared language. That is just too much of a coincidence, and such an important word.

Perhaps the Thai “die” is from Sanskrit/Tamil influence, and there is an English Sanskrit link, although not sure what that is.

The old link of language places parts of India very more important than currently taught, up there with Babylon and Egypt.

In any case heard the ‘die die die’ before means like everthing is <deleted> up. Where I’m at is much more impolite swearing ‘maem’ , ‘yet poom’ , ‘yiip maem’ I believe one of these literally translates to ‘<deleted> grandmas pussy’ These are not limited to southern Thailand.

Yesterday hear my very first ‘jung sia’ which confused me as I understood what was said as there was too much and it was going bad “sia”

But ‘jung sia’ is just like ‘jung hu’

I am not sure of the regional difference, as ‘jung sia’ is not spoken in the house.

‘jung sia’ also appeared one of the old webpages I linked but did not mention because had never heard it.

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yeah phuketsub there is some confusing things about that farang/chompoo naming still don’t understand, luckily for purchasing vendors like to stick to standard.

here is something just realized today, rainy season/dry season

‘ridu raan’ ‘ridu fon’ ฤดูร้อน ฤดูฝน

here always say ‘hna fon, hna raan’

หน้าฝน หน้าร้อน

this isn’t acceptable standard Thai as หน้า = face

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Yes Surfdog...sometimes I feel like I am stuck inside a computer simulation and the differences between local and standard versions were programmed in with sole intention of vexing me. Good point on the seasons...I definitely hear that a lot of naa rawn and naa fon down here, and I have even used it myself. ฤดู (reudoo) sounds kind of old timey posh by comparison now.

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Yes Surfdog...sometimes I feel like I am stuck inside a computer simulation and the differences between local and standard versions were programmed in with sole intention of vexing me. Good point on the seasons...I definitely hear that a lot of naa rawn and naa fon down here, and I have even used it myself. ฤดู (reudoo) sounds kind of old timey posh by comparison now.

I’ve been under the impression that the “na”, as in na fohn, na gin, etc implies adjective, as in “rainy, eatable (tasty)”, whereas “luduu” translates as “season”.... rainy season = luduu fohn, also refers to the growing seasons for different fruit etc, it is/isn’t the season (luduu) for durian etc.

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So today I was informed that the word for 'ass or butt' is 'waan', not 'kon', as in central Thai. You learn something every day...I tried to make a joke by asking 'Does this mean pla waan [=whale] means 'assfish', but they didn't think it was funny. I am still at the point where my deliberate attempts as humor in Thai fail, whereas my blunders can still get a good laugh.

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I’ve been under the impression that the “na”, as in na fohn, na gin, etc implies adjective, as in “rainy, eatable (tasty)”, whereas “luduu” translates as “season”.... rainy season = luduu fohn, also refers to the growing seasons for different fruit etc, it is/isn’t the season (luduu) for durian etc.

It's easy to see why you would think that, but because Thai has tones, it is more complicated.

Na - น่า - yes, like --- 'na gin', is kind of like the adjective tasty, but I think this is more of a multi-modal verb, pretty sure this is spoken with a dropping tone. I don't think you can use "na-fon" as the adjective rainy, but you can definitely say "na fon tok, or na ja fon tak", --- likely to rain.

I believe this is spoke with a lazy 'n' , which gives you the 'h' sound before, with a falling and rising tone.

The southern Thai spelling for "nafon" uses the hna - หน้า

Anyways keep in mind we just talking about southern Thai spoken by southern people. "Ridu" is acceptable, and understandable here, just not used. Plus remember that it is 'Reeduu' or you could "leeduu" but definitely not "luuduu". In south we favor the 'R', the Northeast favors the L. The proper is a trill which is both an R and a L at the same time.

Hope that helps!

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So today I was informed that the word for 'ass or butt' is 'waan', not 'kon', as in central Thai. You learn something every day...I tried to make a joke by asking 'Does this mean pla waan [=whale] means 'assfish', but they didn't think it was funny. I am still at the point where my deliberate attempts as humor in Thai fail, whereas my blunders can still get a good laugh.

Might be something in the spelling of the word to help distinguish what we should be attempting to say or say differently. I'll see if I can come up with the spelling of this southern slang.

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did the reseach for you, asked wife about ‘waan’ which is spelled ‘วาน’

and whale is spelled with ‘วาฬ’

different spelling but same sound, so it is a homonym and perhaps a play on words, because ‘waan’ refers to ‘butt cheeks’ not actually just ‘butt’

So our fat in butt cheeks and whales are fat... :)

Also thanks for pointing out the Thai langauge subforum, interesting stuff, and someone asked for a translation, and my word I know is not in the dictionary, turns out it is southern and I don’t know the proper Thai word.

Baang - บัง = to block a view or path

example - yaa baang = stop blocking (view or path from context)

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Thanks Surfdog...I am pretty sure that yaa baang is used in Bangkok too,,,I used to have a lot of students tell me that when I was blocking their view of the whiteboard. BTW, at that agricultural fair you went to did you happen to notice any avacado trees? I'd like to try growing one here.